RecommendationHS

Often compared to the great Toshiro Mifune, Hiroyuki Sanada is internationally known for his samurai-action roles, such as in The Last Samurai. But what gets the fans hooked on him is his amazing variety of talent. He can be a middle-aged loser guy, ultra-erotic psycho killer, cold-blooded millionair or gravity-defying mystery artist. He has played a live theater comedy musical by Koki Mitani (yes, he can actually sing and dance), and Shakespeares ("King Lear" with Royal Shakespeare Company). Japanese fans and industry people admire him not only because of his good look and acting talent, but also for his obsession for perfection and for his deep consideration to the Japanese film industry as a whole.

Hiroyuki Sanada started his movie career in ninja/martial arts actions in the late 70's with his mentor Sonny Chiba and Director Kinji Fukasaku. During the late 80's and early 90's, he took some break from the actions for more dramatic works, but most of his prominent performances during this period are in TV dramas, such as "High School Teacher" and no DVDs with English subtitles are available in the market. In thae past 10 years, when hoga makers finally got their acts together, his unique combination of talent (acting and action skills) started to flourish.

Ringu(1998)
Director: Hideo Nakata
Cast: Nanako Matsushima, Hiroyuki Sanada

"Ringu" gave a totally new type of horror feelings to the audience, and is marked as the trigger of "Japanese Horror boom" outside of Japan, giving birth to "Hollywood remake" tactics. It is the most widely available movie internationally among Sanada's works.

The Twilight Samurai (2002)
Director: Yoji Yamada
Cast: Hiroyuki Sanada, Rie Miyazawa, Min Tanaka

Widely considered as his best work in the past, "The Twilight Samurai" is a great combination of human drama, love story, sword action and art. It is often said that what "Twilight" is for samurai period dramas is equivalent to what "Unforgiven" is for Western movies. With the new realistic sword play and dramatic subtleties, it could have been done by no other actor but Sanada. It was nominated in U.S. Academy Foreign Language Film category in 2004, and the film swept 12 out of 13 categories of Japan Academy Awards in 2003.

Round About Midnight (2001)
Director: Makoto Wada
Cast: Hiroyuki Sanada, Michelle Lee

This is not one of his numerous award-winning movies (and unfortunately many are not made into DVD's with English subs), but a nice example for the depth of his talent. Sanada plays a jazz trumpeter, and even professional musicians are amazed at the details of his acting. After Kinji Fukasaku started Sanada as an actor, Makoto Wada made him bloom in unique variety of roles after his 1982 "Mahjong", and has been a close collaborator with Sanada.

Legend of the Eight Samurai (1983)
Director: Kinji Fukasaku
Cast: Hiroko Yakushimaru, Hiroyuki Sanada, Sonny Chiba

I have to admit this is not for everyone - it is a cheezy 80's fantasy ninja movie, but I wanted to select one from his ninja action era to show his amazing action skills. This is a typical one from this era, directed by Kinji Fukasaku and working with his mentor Sonny Chiba, and was also a big hit idol movie made by Haruki Kadokawa at his top period, starring Kadokawa's top star Hiroko Yakushimaru. Black magic taste with Kabuki-style make-up and costumes is typical Fukasaku-style during this era. Please note that the film is dubbed in English, so you cannot hear Hiroyuki's sillky voice in US version DVD.

Kaito Ruby (1988)
Director: Makoto Wada
Cast: Kyoko Koizumi, Hiroyuki Sanada

Again in collaboration with Makoto Wada, Sanada's first forey into a light-hearted musical comedy was a breath of fresh air at the low time for Japanese film industry. Starring then-top-idol singer Kyoko Koizumi, silly and funny crime plot is punctuated by singing and dancing. This is the only film in which you can get a glance at Sanada's musical performance, so I decided to pick this one, even though the DVD is not subtitled.

Region: <Region 1> is for North America and <Region 2> is for Japan and Europe. If your DVD player is for Region 1 only, Region 2 DVDs don't play on your DVD player. To watch the DVD with region code other than where you live, you need to obtain "region-free" DVD player. PC's also can play different regions, but there may be a limit of how many times you can change the region code. Please refer to the manuals of your PC.

Shopping at Amazon Japan: Amazon Japan ships to overseas and they take major credit cards. Just as you do for US Amazon, click the Amazon link and go to Amazon Japan to shop. You need to set up a separate account specific to Amazon Japan, even if you have an account in another country. Click "Add to Shopping Cart" or "Buy now with 1-click" button to go into the English shopping cart page. If all the buttons are displayed in Japanese, find "Display in English" line on the upper right corner of the page. In the shipping instruction page, if you are puzzled by a line asking for "furigana", just input your name in alphabet again.